Data Ingestion & Safety Rating Methodology
Transparent documentation of our federal data sources, algorithmic evaluation models, statutory update cadences, and national benchmark derivations.
1 Federal Data Sources & Public Records Ingestion
All commercial motor carrier profiles, registration snapshots, and safety audit metrics on CarrierIndex.org are aggregated strictly from authoritative public datasets published by the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Key upstream systems include:
- MCMIS Census (Motor Carrier Management Information System): The master government database of all registered entities, Form MCS-150 biennial updates, physical addresses, power unit counts, and driver rosters.
- L&I Database (Licensing & Insurance): Official records of active interstate operating authorities, voluntary and involuntary revocations, Form BMC-91/91X liability filings, and Form BMC-35 notices of pending cancellation.
- SMS (Safety Measurement System): The federal safety enforcement audit engine tracking commercial vehicle roadside inspections, out-of-service violations, and state police crash logs across rolling 24-month cycles.
2 Derivation of National Safety Baselines
To provide meaningful analytical context rather than uncontextualized raw figures, CarrierIndex programmatically benchmarks each motor carrier's inspection performance against the official multi-year national averages published by the FMCSA:
National average percentage of commercial vehicle roadside inspections resulting in an Out-of-Service (OOS) mechanical defect order.
National average percentage of driver inspections resulting in an Out-of-Service order (Hours-of-Service, CDL disqualification, or medical expiration).
A carrier whose vehicle OOS rate is lower than 21.4% is visually flagged as operating in positive compliance relative to the national fleet baseline.
3 CarrierShield™ Risk Assessment Engine
Our proprietary CarrierShield™ evaluation algorithm synthesizes over 6.2 million federal data points to score carriers on a 0–100 scale and assign an actionable risk tier:
- Critical Fraud Risk (Score 0–29): Triggered by active federal Out-of-Service orders, multiple involuntary authority revocations, or high-risk chameleon carrier indicators.
- High Risk (Score 30–54): Multiple pending insurance cancellations, severe crash histories, or chronic vehicle OOS rates above 40%.
- Moderate Risk (Score 55–69): Incomplete biennial updates, clerical truck-to-driver anomalies, or above-average driver violations.
- Verified Compliant (Score 70–100): Clean authority history, active verified liability policies, zero OOS orders, and verified BOC-3 legal agents.
4 Data Correction & Form MCS-150 Updates
Because CarrierIndex is a mirror of official federal public records, corrections to legal names, registered addresses, phone numbers, or fleet equipment counts must originate with the federal government.
Motor carriers wishing to update their operational profile must submit an updated Form MCS-150 through the official FMCSA Portal. Once processed by federal registrars, updates are automatically ingested during our regular synchronization cycles.